page_title: Joshua Fry Speed
section_title: Ancestors, family and early life
hierarchical_section_title: Joshua Fry Speed / Life / Ancestors, family and early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: abrahamlincolnba02newy (find matches) Title: Abraham Lincoln and the battles of the Civil War Year: 1887 (1880s) Authors: Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Generals Generals Publisher: (New York, N.Y.)&#160;: (The Century Co.) Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: with this change in dre^s cameother alterations which were all for the bet-ter— a growing self-respect among the young;an industry and thrift by which they could buygood clothes; a habit of attending religiousservice, where they could show them&#160;; aprogress in sociability, civility, trade, andmorals.* The taste for civilization had sometimes awhimsical manifestation. Mr. Stuart said themembers of the Legi&gt;lat ure bitterly complainedof the amount of game—venison and grouseof the most delicious quality — which wasserved them at the taverns in Vandalia; theyclamored for bacon — they \\ ere starving, theysaid, for something civilized. There wasplenty of civilized nourishment in Springfield.Wheat was fifty cents a bushel, rye thirty-three; corn and oats were twenty-five, pota-toes twenty-five; butter was eight &lt; cuts apound, and eggs were eight cents a dozen;pork was two and a half cents a pound. The town was built on the edge of the Fords History. p. 94. 36S ARRAH.AM L(XCOLN. Text Appearing After Image: MRS. LUCY G. SPEED, MOTHER OF JOSHUA SPEED. (FROM A PAINTING BY JOSEPH BUSH, ABOUT 1834.) woods, the north side touching the timber,the south encroaching on the prairie. Therichness of the soil was seen in the mud ofthe streets, black as ink, and of an unfathom-able depth in time of thaw. There were, ofcourse, no pavements or sidewalks; an at-tempt at crossings was made by laying downlarge chunks of wood. The houses were al-most all of wood, and were disposed in rect-angular blocks. A large square had beenleft in the middle of the town, in anticipationof future greatness, and there, when Lincoln_ n his residence, the work of clearing theind for the new State-house was alreadygoing forward. In one of the largest houseslo )king on the square, at the north-west cor-ner, the count)- court had its offices, and otherrooms in the building were let to lawyers.One of these was occupied by Stuart andLincoln, for the friendship formed in theBlack Hawk war and strengthened at Van- _ It i-, not un Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Joshua Fry Speed was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln from his days in Springfield, Illinois, where Speed was a partner in a general store. Later, Speed was a farmer and a real estate investor in Kentucky, and also served one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1848.
context_section_description: Joshua Fry Speed was born at Farmington, Louisville, Kentucky, to Judge John Speed and Lucy G. Speed (née Fry) on November 14, 1814. On his father's side, Speed's ancestry can be traced back to 17th century cartographer and historian John Speed. John Speed's great grandson (James Speed) emigrated to Virginia in 1695, and in turn his grandson Captain James Speed, fought in the American Revolution during which he received a serious wound in 1781, for which the Continental Congress awarded him 7,500 acres in the territory of Kentucky. Captain Speed emigrated to Kentucky in 1782, became a judge and land speculator (accumulating 45,000 acres in central Kentucky) and member of the territorial conventions by which Kentucky became separated from Virginia. One of Captain Speed's children (out of six), John Speed, owned a store in the 1790s, operated (with leased slaves) a salt works. In the 1800s his father gave him a large tract on which to begin farming. In 1808, after the death of his first wife, he married Lucy Gilmer Fry. In addition to growing staples, John Speed used his farm to produce the labor-intensive cash crop of hemp. He would acquire other businesses as well, including a blacksmith. By his death in 1840 he had become one of Kentucky's largest slave-owners with 54.
  Lucy Speed had come from Virginia where her family was close to Thomas Jefferson. Her father inherited considerable wealth in land and slaves in Virginia but left for Kentucky in 1788 or 1789 and opened a school in his house where he taught a number of boys who would later become prominent. Joshua Speed was the fifth of 11 children from the marriage (one of whom died in infancy the year Joshua was born). Although Speed remained close to his mother until her death, he seems to have had a strained relationship with his father, who complained of "all your abuse of me" when Joshua was 15. Depression seems to have run in the family with evidence of it in his father, two of his brothers (with James Speed showing signs of clinical depression) and Joshua himself. Lincoln himself even observed of Joshua that "you are naturally of a nervous temperament."
caption: Lucy Speed, mother of Joshua
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